Guideline for Rental and Move-outs from Germany

General Information for Rental Period and Move-Out

In Germany, it is not allowed to throw certain items, e.g. used TV-set, vacuum cleaner, car tires, into usual garbage containers. These are items which have to be disposed of at special garbage collection centres or which will be picked up by the city council, if arranged. As there are different garbage / waste disposal requirements in Germany (depending on kind of garbage/waste and location), we recommend checking at the local municipality where and how to dispose of them properly. Your DSC can help you with information (such as addresses and opening times). Leaving any garbage / items behind (which are not part of the property) can incur additional costs when they need to be removed after Move Out. Cleaning companies are not responsible for removing any garbage/waste/items which are left behind. + Items that may remain in the property Items can only remain in the rental property with a verifiable agreement with the landlord or next tenant. In such a case we always strongly recommend written agreements to avoid misunderstandings. + Items that need to remain in the property - Please make sure that the movers do not pack any items that belong with the apartment / house (e.g., baking trays, fire tongs, keys, remote controls, manuals, gardening tools belonging to the property) for shipment as you will be held responsible for their loss. - All keys (for the individual room doors, as well), remote controls, manuals for inventory items etc. need to be returned to the landlord. Do not leave any keys, remote controls etc. in a kitchen drawer for example. They might be forgotten or lost. Everything has to be handed back to the landlord officially. Since the landlord has the right to exchange the locks at the tenant’s expense when keys are missing, this could become a considerable cost factor. This particularly applies if a central locking system has been installed. In this case, the landlord has the right to exchange all locks in the entire house if keys are missing. It is a difficult situation if your landlord claims something to be missing that you claim was not there when you moved in. Nobody can prove the contrary. The only proof is that the walk- through protocol or inventory list states that this particular thing was missing when you moved in. There is no real legal situation that clarifies this. It often ends in a compromise or that the tenant has to pay for the missing part if he cannot prove otherwise. 4. Responsibility for the Property and Damage As long as you have rented a property you are fully responsible for it according to your duties mentioned in your rental contract, i.e. you are responsible for the property during the entire rental period. This is also valid even when you have left the city or country before the end of your lease contract. Any damage which occurs during the lease period has to be reported to the landlord immediately. If the tenant fails to inform the landlord in a timely manner, the tenant may be

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